Estero softball team recovers from tough loss to go 3-1 in Gulliver tournament

Alex Murphey, a senior, broke Community School of Naples' track record in 200-meter dash with first-place finish at IMG Academy Invitational, clocking in with time of 22.14. He is this week's Athlete of the Week.
Kelli Krebs / Naples Daily News

Estero's Alexandra Salter takes over on the mound as North Fort Myers coach Jeff Miner discusses things with on-deck batter Sarah Giompalo during the second inning of Wednesday night's game.(Photo: Andrew Sodergren/Staff)

Estero junior third baseman Riley Ennis said the loss against North Fort Myers may have been a blessing in disguise.

“I think we almost worked much harder this weekend to prove that’s not who we really are,” Ennis said. “There are going to be nights where nothing really clicks, and that definitely happened to us that night. But the next day in practice, we were able to re-focus. We knew the teams (in the Gulliver tournament) were going to be just as good or better than any team we’ve seen all year, and it was an opportunity for us to show how good we are.”

Estero coach Crystal Stowell said she was pleased to see how well her team responded to adversity.

“To be honest, it was difficult to even know what to say after that game Wednesday night, we played that poorly,” Stowell said. “But we had a really good practice Thursday, and you could tell the girls really wanted to put that behind them. After we beat Gulliver Prep in such an exciting way, I told the girls, ‘Well if that doesn’t pump you up and make you forget about what happened Wednesday night.' And they joked with me and said, ‘What happened on Wednesday night, coach?’"

Estero (14-3) now heads into spring break with momentum. As frustrating as the North Fort Myers loss was, the Wildcats completed a six-game week against perennial local powers Bishop Verot and North Fort Myers, then the four tournament games in Miami, and went 4-2 in those six games.

“Yes, the North Fort Myers game was bad, but it really doesn’t matter all that much,” Ennis said. “It wasn’t a district game. They’re not a team we’ll see in the playoffs. You take that game out of it, we had a really good week against a lot of quality teams.”